A businessman recovers money thanks to Google Street View

If the Administration often uses the latest technologies and even the help of satellites to discover urban developments taken out of order, this time a popular Internet tool, the controversial Google Maps, has served to a resident of Lucena can recover all of the bond posted with the Town Planning Manager for the realization of works at a local drinks and their alleged involvement in the street.

According to Antonio Jesús García, co-owner of the popular coffee shop “Vanilla”, located in the central street of Pedro Angulo Lucena, in 2010 applied for planning permission to carry out further reforms in local, being obliged to deposit with the City a deposit of 500 euros for the hypothetical defect it may cause the work in public, an amount that, if no damage occurs, it should have been returned.

In October 2010, completed the work of setting up the business establishment cited for its opening. After requesting a refund of money paid as security, last week, a year after the end of the performance, a technician from the Municipal Urban Management urged the owner of the plant to replace two slabs in public, allegedly damaged by their work, as a condition precedent to recovery of the bond.

The owner argued in its favor that the defect in the steel had not been following the work of its establishment, but did not have any proof of this …, do you? How to prove that the damage referred to by the Planning Department, already existed before the cafeteria “Vanilla” started its work …?

Controversial tool

As so often the answer was the Internet. Google Maps is a powerful tool that a few years ago was enhanced with the incorporation of Google Street View service, developed with photos taken at street level from a vehicle specially equipped with cameras that shoot at preset intervals reported many residents and businesses the opportunity that the ‘sweeps’ being conducted by the company could violate privacy and multiple anecdotes were generated by the service from those who reported being victims of espionage, who claimed to have caught a thief in the act or have discovered an extramarital affair with mombran spelled out in a public park.

In this case, images from Google Street View, taken in 2008, when the premises had not yet been created. On the sidewalk are clearly defect on steel blamed the technicians to work on the bar. According to Jesus Antonio Garcia, “before the evidence of the images, Urban Office had no difficulty in recognizing his mistake and has authorized the release of the security.”